Martial Arts
by PersonifyThis
Summary: LJ Meme Fill. Sealand gets lost in Cape Town, South Africa while at a World Conference.


This is another fill for LJ Meme. The prompt was about martial arts and saving the day. The style of martial arts used is Korean Tang Soo Do. I've done Tang Soo Do all my life, but I've never written about it before so if it comes across weird that'd be why. I hope you enjoy it! This was a fun little project.

Oh and standard disclaimer: I own nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

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There was a lot of things the other nations didn't know. This was just one of them. For once, South Korea wasn't trying to grope his brother or shouting that "such and such was made in him!" Instead he was standing in a crisp white uniform trimmed in black. He was barefooted on a soft, green mat.

Yong Soo wasn't alone. Alfred stood across from him, for once, not talking. His people had been going through a bit of a karate craze so he decided to learn too. America asked Yong Soo to teach him because he was cooler than China. The Asian nation said he didn't mind, but Alfred had to play by his rules.

Respect was one of the first lessons in Tang Soo Do. Respect yourself, respect your instructor, respect your peers, respect the school. Everyone always bowed. Bowing was suppose to show respect. You bow when you enter the mat. You bow at the beginning of class to the flags. The South Korean flag and the American flag hang side by side in the school. Then you bow to the senior instructor and only then does class begin. It was a lot of bowing.

The two bowed to each other. Yong Soo had a steel knife gripped loosely in his right hand. He let out a yell, a keyup, and attacked over head aiming for Alfred. The blonde nation stepped foreword into a front stance with a double knife hand, high block. Alfred caught the attack and twisted it down to his hip, gripping the Korean's wrist, but keeping the blade facing away from him. Alfred tugged down and around, using the momentum from Yong Soo's attack to drive the other boy into the floor.

On the floor, Alfred knelt next to Yong Soo. His arm was pinned down like a butterfly. Alfred kept the knife tight in his hand. He wouldn't let it knick the mat. That would be _unspeakably_ bad. Alfred faked a punch to the skull and kiyuped. Yong Soo tapped the matt, signaling he was out. Alfred backed off and stood up. The two bowed to each other.

"You're block was good Alfred, but you have to keep a better grip when you pin me. If I had wanted to I could have gotten away from your hold once you had me on the ground."

"Yes, sir."

Respect also meant when you address anyone of a higher rank, you called them sir or ma'am, even if they were younger than you. It took Alfred a while to remember that. And even longer for him to feel comfortable with it. Bowing was just an action, but verbalizing respect to someone wasn't something he had to do since he was a colony.

Tang Soo Do was all about soft power, only using martial arts when it was needed to protect someone else and never to start a fight. Alfred thought, if he ever had to use his martial arts it would make him a hero. But years went by without Alfred ever getting into a situation that required his skills. Sometimes he wished that there someone would attack him or a friend so he could use his skills save the day. However, no one wanted to mess with the world's only superpower.

* * *

Sealand was bouncing down along the street. The World Conference was in Cape Town, South Africa this month. It was Sealand's first time visiting the country. In the past, he'd had to stay at his brother, Åland's, house until his parent's got back. It was fun, but he'd wanted to travel too. He was going to be a nation after all, he had to work on his foreign policy!

He really liked South Africa so far. And even though it was February, it was summer time! And Table Mountain was one of the coolest things he'd ever seen. The mountain was flat like his dining room table at home and sometimes the clouds would drift over the top of it, just enough to make it look like a white table cloth was on the mountain.

The afternoons during the meetings always went by really slowly because, by then, he'd already read all the comics he'd brought for the day and played his video games. But he was going to be a nation one day so he didn't complain! It was all practice for when he was recognized!

At lunch, his Papa Berwald had given him a few dollars to go get a slushie from the corner store. He'd been asking his Papa to let him do more stuff on his own and now Papa was letting him. After all how could someone be a grown up nation if they couldn't even go somewhere by themselves?

So Sealand was going out to the corner store all by himself to get a slushie. He was going to get blue raspberry. Yum. Mama Finland had made sure he had his cell phone on him three times before they let Sealand leave. But it was silly for Mama and Papa to worry because everyone spoke English so it was really easy for him to get around. But Papa Berwald had still told him to be back within the hour.

Peter wandered through the V&A Waterfront looking for a corner store. The only problem was there were so many things to look at. A man was spinning fire in front of him. Sealand stopped to watch. The man was black skinned and had really brightly colored clothes on. He spun the fire in circles before lighting two little wicks on the top of a soda pop bottle. A wire was stretched between them, which also caught flame. Then the performer backed up and motioned the crowd back too. Sealand grinned. He jumped up a couple times then laid himself flat on the ground and wiggled his way _underneath_ the string! Sealand clapped with the rest of the crowded and hollered when the man put out the wicks by eating them.

Sealand's eyes were drawn away from the man and he wandered over to a twenty foot high television screen that was showing an animal program. The sound came from every direction and Sealand settled in to watch. When the clip was over, Peter wandered down to the water. Big, hairy sea lions were lounging on the docks. Peter stared at them. There were three female sea lions flipping around in the water. Sealand played I-spy the sea lion with himself. He watched for the edge of their fins poking out of the water. The thought of his blue slushie was completely out his mind and the sun was setting.

Sealand only noticed it was dark because the lights from the cruise ships started reflecting off the water. Sealand looked up. They sky was painted red and orange. Table Mountain was dark against the colors in the sky.

"Oh no," Sealand muttered. He didn't know how he lost track of time so badly. There was just too many things to do in Cape Town. Sealand started to leave the Waterfront and head back to the building the conference was at. He walked down a road that was really wide and had a round-about. He didn't remember passing that on the way to the Waterfront. The darkness seemed to change everything though and quickly Sealand got all turned around.

"Oh," he sighed to himself, "how am I ever going to be recognized as a nation if I can't even get back to the World Meeting... You can do this Sea-kun! And then everyone will recognize the great nation of Sealand!" The little boy struck a pose before setting off down the street again.

Sealand wandered for a while, but couldn't find anything that looked familiar. When he remembered he had his cell phone, he tried to call Papa only to realize he didn't know how to call him from another country. Peter tried to dial his Papa's work number and an automated voice came on telling him to hang up and try again. Peter tried again and again trying all the different country codes he could think of. Calling his Mama's phone and his Papa's, but nothing worked.

The little boy was so frustrated he hurled the phone to the ground. The screen cracked and it bounced on the sidewalk. Sealand's eyes started to water up and he gently picked up the phone. He'd broke it. Peter sniffed, he just wanted to get home.

The young blonde sat on the curb watching cars go by. He sniffed and tried to suck his tears back up. When that didn't work he scrubbed at his face furiously.

"Hey there little boy. Are you lost?" a rough, South African accented voice asked. The speaker was a white man around Jerk England's age.

Peter watched him for a moment before responding, hoping he didn't sound like he'd just been crying, "No, I'm not. I just don't know exactly where I am!"

Sealand asked, "Can you help me? I'm trying to get to the International Convention Centre."

"Oh of course, I've been there a hundred times," the man responded, "Why don't you come with me?"

Sealand grinned, glad to have finally found someone to help him get back.

"Yeah that'd be great!" Peter said. "Thanks mister!"

The man held his hand out for Sealand to hold. Peter grinned and took it.

The man made small talk with Peter as they walked. He told Peter that his name was Christopher and he worked as a tour guide. He brought tourists out to see the Great White Sharks in his boat every day. Sealand thought that sounded like the best job ever, after being a country of course.

Christopher led Sealand towards the glittering lights of downtown and Sealand started to recognize the area. He was almost positive his hotel was somewhere close to here. People were whizzing by the two of them when Peter felt a tug on his hand.

"Hey Peter, come 'ere for a sec," Christopher said. "I wanna show you something." He pulled Peter down an alleyway. There was a dumpster on one side and the light from the street lamps didn't shine this far into the alley. Peter started to have doubts. Papa Berwald had told him to stay away from alleys.

"Hey Chris, where are we going?" Peter asked. "I thought you were taking me back to the Convention Centre..."

"Oh this is just a side trip! We'll be going there in a moment." Christopher replied. "I want to introduce you to some of my friends!"

Peter nodded, but it seemed like a weird place to be meeting friends. Chris punched a text message into his phone and Sealand peered around the alleyway. It stank of garbage and a stray cat sat on a fire escape, cleaning its paws. Three men emerged from the other end of the ally.

"Hey guys!" Christopher exclaimed. Peter saw the men get closer. They didn't look scary. No facial piercing or tattoos or strange colors in their hair. He could see Mama Finland being friendly with these people.

"Is this him?" One of the men asked, looking down at Peter.

"Hi, I'm Peter Kirkland!" Peter exclaimed trying to sound like a grown up nation. He could do this.

"Yup! One lost, little rich boy just for you, Dock!" Christopher said.

"Perfect."

The three men advanced on Peter. Peter looked to Chris. What was going on. He thought Chris was going to take him back to his Papa. One of the men had a white rag out and Peter had seen enough movies to know that if he got that near Peter's mouth he'd fall fast asleep. Peter panicked. Chris had lied to him. He wasn't trying to help him. The small boy tried to scramble away. He was hollering and calling for his Papa even though he knew he wasn't there.

The men laughed and pulled Peter back. A thick hand was pressed against his mouth.

"Hey come on kid, we're not going to do nothing bad to ya. Just sell you back to your parents for a little bit of dough. No harm, no foul." Chris said. Peter felt his tears slip under the hand and onto his lips. They tasted salty.

"Ah, just hurry up. Knock him out and shut him up. I'm tired of hearing him," Dock said.

Peter saw the white cloth out of the corner of his eye. He started to struggle harder. He bit at the hand which made Christopher swear.

There was no sound or shout, but one second the hand was on Peter's face and the next second it was gone. A crunch came from behind Peter. The little boy turned to see what was going on. His legs were trembling and he slid to the ground.

Alfred was there. For the first time, the superpower's face wasn't laughing. He had Christopher pinned to the ground with one arm out to his side. Alfred punched Christopher in the head, knocking him unconscious. As the American was doing that, one of Dock's two friends came up behind him with a knife.

Peter tried to call out to America to let him know, but the words got stuck in his throat like molasses. Somehow though Alfred knew because he turned away from the attack, deflecting it with his forearm. The nation slid under the man's arm. America grabbed the arm and put it over his shoulder, pressing up fast. The man cried out, dropping the knife and falling to the ground. Peter thought America had broken the guy's elbow.

The next guy rushed Alfred while he was finishing the knife wielder off. He grabbed Alfred's arms and Dock slugged Alfred across the jaw hard. The American fell. Dock started to kick America in the stomach, over and over. Peter knew he should get up. He knew he should help, but his body wouldn't move.

Peter thought it was all over. A human had defeated the strongest country in the world. Then Alfred reached a hand up and grabbed Dock's foot mid swing. America stood then glaring fiercely with blood running down the side of his face. He reached a hand up to wipe it away.

"That wasn't very heroic of you," America stated.

The two attackers burst into a flurry of motion. The friend tried to strangle Alfred from behind the same time that Dock rushed America. But Alfred was ready for them. He reached an arm behind him, grabbed both of his strangler's arms in one grip, locking him in place, before he punched the man. The first man went down. Only Dock was left, but he was pinning Alfred from behind and punching at the nation.

The blows didn't even seem to faze American though. Calmly Alfred brought his arms up close to his chest and made a circular motion. He seemed to slide out of the grip. Dock looked stunned. America reached in close and grabbed Dock's shirt. He swept his foot out around Dock's. The human's legs were pulled out from under him and he went down hard. Alfred wasted no time in slamming his fist into Dock's face.

"Pet'r!"

Peter turned to see his Papa in the mouth of the alley. He was striding over with Mama Finland right behind him. Peter blinked and the next second Papa had swept him up into a giant bear hug. Mama Finland hugged Peter too. Mama pressed his head against Peter's and Peter tried not to cry again.

"America, I didn't know you knew martial arts!" England's voice exclaimed from somewhere. America's obnoxious laugh filled the alley. Peter didn't know either, but he was sure glad that America did.

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So now you've read! Please review! It takes two seconds and it means a lot to me :)


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